20 August 2011

Republican presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman took a swipe at his rivals and warned his party against rejecting science in an interview that will air Sunday.

"I think there's a serious problem. The minute that the Republican Party becomes the party -- the anti-science party -- we have a huge problem," the former US ambassador to China told ABC television's "This Week."

Earlier this week, Texas Governor Rick Perry, also running for the nomination, called man-made climate change a "theory that has not yet been proven."

He added that "there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects."

Shortly after Perry's comments, Huntsman, who has been lagging in the polls, scored big on Twitter when he wrote: "To be clear, I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy."

At least 3,600 people on the micro-blogging site 'retweeted" Huntsman's claim over the next 24 hours, making it the most repeated comment by a Republican White House hopeful in 2012, according to the 140elect.com website.

Huntsman told ABC that if Republicans opt for a stance that "runs counter to what 98 of 100 climate scientists have said," they will find themselves "on the wrong side of science and, therefore, in a losing position."

Despite his impressive resume as a successful Utah governor and Obama's well regarded ambassador to China, Huntsman has yet to catch fire with Republican primary voters looking for a standard-bearer in the November 2012 elections.

Huntsman has drawn considerable media attention, but has been polling inside the margin of error in most surveys.